Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can be manifest be a sudden and momentary current between conductors at different potentials that, in certain examples, may damage electronic components or materials. Input/output (I/O) buffers (e.g., high current I/O buffers, such as those found in cell phones or other electronic devices having I/O) have been damaged during ESD testing. Failure analysis uncovered that pre-driver circuits, internal to the I/O buffers, were being damaged. Further testing illustrated that large drain/gate capacitance of an output PMOS of the pre-driver circuit can cause coupling of an ESD charge onto the pre-driver.